Andrew Peters, Ilkka Pikkarainen and Matt Corrente were Devils scratches. Former Devils defenseman David Hale was scratched by the Lightning.

SECOND PERIOD: Ryan Malone went off just over two minutes into the period when he was cut by Brodeur's skate blade while on the ice in front of the New Jersey goalie.

The Lightning took a 2-0 lead at 5:13 after Bryce Salvador was called for tripping Steven Stamkos. A cross-ice pass during the Lightning power play hit Rob Niedermayer in the skate and then stick and deflected to Brandon Bochenski in the slot, where the Tampa Bay winger fired it past Brodeur.

Stamkos scored his 22nd goal of the season at 10:04 on a play that started with a Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond turnover in the neutral zone.

Vincent Lecavalier shot the puck in, where Devils defenseman Mike Mottau was unable to clear high in the slot. Martin St. Louis slid the puck to Stamkos for the easy goal that put the Devils in a 3-0 hole.

With 9:12 remaining in the period, some of the Prudential Center's lights went out. It was 8:18 p.m.

After eight minutes, the two teams were sent back to their dressing rooms. Probably no truth to the rumor that Devils GM Lou Lamoriello turned off the lights because of his team's performance up to that point.

The delay was 30 minutes old when Lightning GM Brian Lawton left the press box and headed downstairs.

After 40 minutes the lights were still off and no official word on what was happening.

FIRST PERIOD: Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond picked up his first penalty minutes of the seasonm when he fought Zenon Konopka at 2:16. Neither player got in many punches.

Smith kept the Lightning in the game early on. He stopped Jamie Langennbrunner at 5:13 on a setup from Zach Parise as the Devils had a two-on-one. Earlier, he made a skate save on Dean McAmmond at 4:42.

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead at 6:58 on a power play goal from Steve Downie. Rod Pelley was in the penalty box for tripping Victor Hedman when Kurtis Foster drilled a slap shot and Downie deflected it with the shaft of his stick.

The goal was credited to Foster, but is likely to be changed.

And it was changed.

With 4:29 left, Smith threw the puck onto McAmmond's stick but was fortunate when the veteran center missed the net. The Devils were outshooting Tampa Bay, 11-4, at that point.